Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday eviscerated Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe as a ‘total flop’ and urged the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Weaponization to investigate the ‘abusive ways’ the special counsel team keeps pressing for information.

During the subcommittee’s first hearing Thursday, the Maryland Democrat said it was the Trump administration that weaponized the federal government and argued that former President Donald Trump fired inspectors general and appointed Bill Barr as attorney general, who Raskin said ‘worked to kill’ investigations that were unflattering to Trump.

Raskin said Barr’s appointment of Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI’s original investigation against Trump, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, was another example of the GOP’s weaponization of the government.

‘Consider the John Durham investigation,’ Raskin said during the hearing Thursday. ‘At the urging of Republicans, including the good chairman [Jim Jordan], the John Durham special counsel investigation was set up in 2019 by Barr to try to find wrongdoing by intelligence or law enforcement agencies in the origins of the Mueller investigation.’

‘After four years and millions of dollars spent, the Durham investigation closed as a total flop without unearthing anything like the deep-state conspiracy that Republicans have been denouncing around here for years,’ Raskin said, adding that Durham ‘couldn’t find anything of substance to it.’

‘Yet Barr and Durham kept pressing in clearly abusive ways,’ Raskin continued. ‘I hope your subcommittee will investigate.’

Raskin slammed Republicans by saying they want Durham to ‘keep this wild goose chase going today.’

The Durham probe was launched in part because after nearly two years, Mueller’s investigation into Trump yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election.

House Republicans are unlikely to take up Raskin’s suggestion, but Senate Democrats said last month that they plan to investigate ‘alleged misconduct’ by Durham as he conducts his investigation.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., referenced a New York Times report that included details about the opening of and actions taken during the investigation led by Durham after he was appointed by Barr, which Durbin framed as ‘abuses of power.’

‘These reports about abuses in Special Counsel Durham’s investigation – so outrageous that even his longtime colleagues quit in protest – are but one of many instances where former President Trump and his allies weaponized the Justice Department,’ Durbin said. ‘As we wait for the results of ongoing internal reviews, the Senate Judiciary Committee will do its part and take a hard look at these repeated episodes, and the regulations and policies that enabled them, to ensure such abuses of power cannot happen again.’

Durham has been investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe since the spring of 2019.

In October 2020, Barr appointed Durham as special counsel to ensure that he would be able to continue his investigative work – regardless of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Durham has indicted three people as part of his investigation: former Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann in September 2021, Igor Danchenko in November 2021 and Kevin Clinesmith in August 2020.

Sussmann and Danchenko were found to be not guilty. Clinesmith pleaded guilty and served community service time. The investigation is ongoing.

As the Biden administration tells the Supreme Court that the Title 42 public health order will end when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends in May, it is denying reports that it is planning to replace it with ‘mass deportations’ of non-Mexicans to Mexico.

‘Reports that we are considering mass deportations of non-Mexicans to Mexico are false,’ DHS spokesperson Marsha Espinosa said, in response to a Washington Post report that said a deal is in the works to carry out large-scale deportations across the border when Title 42 ends.

Title 42 has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations since March 2020 to rapidly expel migrants at the border due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration attempted to end the order last year, but was blocked by a court order.  

In a separate case by civil rights groups later in the year that sought to force the administration to end Title 42, the Supreme Court took up the case after a last-ditch Republican appeal. It is expected to rule in the Spring, delaying concerns of a fresh migrant surge until then.

However, in a court filing on this week, lawyers for the administration told the court that ‘the anticipated end of the public health emergency on May 11, and the resulting expiration of the operative Title 42 order, would render this case moot.’

President Biden had announced last month that the COVID-19 emergency declaration would end in May. The filing urged the court to dismiss the challenge due to the CDC order which says the policy would end when the public health emergency expires. 

Should Title 42 end in May, it would be ending at a time when migrant encounters typically increase. Officials had predicted last year up to 14,000 encounters a day when the order ends.

Such an interpretation once again puts a ticking clock on the order which has been used as a stopgap by the Biden administration to prevent mass releases into the interior amid a historic migrants crisis that has seen millions of migrants hit the border in the last two years.

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly said it has a six-point plan to deal with what is expected to be an enormous surge at the southern border once the order ends. That includes increasing resources to the border, greater cooperation with Mexico, more anti-smuggling operations, and greater use of alternative removal authorities contained within the primary Title 8 authority.

While the administration has laid out its general plan for post-Title 42 border policy, it is unclear what specifically that that will look like. The Post reported this week that President Biden is weighing the deal that would allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. legally, but also allow ‘large-scale deportations’ of non-Mexicans back into Mexico. According to the outlet, the plan would hand control over key details, such as the nationalities of those being deported, to Mexican authorities.

However, DHS shot down the report on Thursday.

‘We’re continuing to work closely with govt of Mexico to implement our successful border enforcement plan which has already resulted in lowest encounter numbers between ports of entry in 2yrs,’ Espinosa said.

There have already been indications that the end of Title 42 will lead to a massive surge in migration, beyond DHS’ own estimates. As the fate of Title 42 was scheduled to end in December, apprehensions at the border shot up even above the already high numbers being seen — with 251,000 migrant encounters at the border that month alone, marking a new record.

The Biden administration announced new border measures in January that expand a humanitarian parole program to include Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans and allows 30,000 nationals to enter a month if they have a sponsor, do not enter illegally, and pass background checks.

Meanwhile, the administration also expanded Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities and is expected to introduce a rule in the next month that will forbid migrants from applying for asylum if they have passed through another country and failed to apply there. 

Officials have said that the policy is working, and Biden noted in his State of the Union that encounters of those nationalities have dropped 97%. Sources have told Fox News that encounters in January are down to 150,000 — the lowest since Feb. 2021. However, the administration has also claimed that the measures by themselves will not fix the crisis, and is urging Congress to pass an immigration bill that would include greater funding for the border as well as amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants – something that has been under consideration since 2021 but has failed to gain Republican support.

‘America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts. If we won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farmworkers, and essential workers,’ Biden said on Tuesday.

Republicans responded by yelling at him to ‘secure the border.’

Legislation that sets a three-month window before long-term hotel and inn guests in North Carolina obtain legal protections commonly reserved for home and apartment renters was approved by the state Senate on Thursday.

Republicans in charge of the chamber pushed through the measure after using parliamentary maneuvers to turn away several amendments offered by a Democrat who said the bill would harm vulnerable citizens fearful of getting thrown out of their only housing.

The measure, which now goes to the House following a 28-16 vote, was developed after some hoteliers complained of difficulties removing some disorderly guests. Bill supporters say current law fails to clearly define ‘transient occupancies’ that aren’t subject to landlord-tenant rules that require legal action for evictions, for example.

The bill states that landlord-tenant protections kick in after someone stays at a hotel, motel or campground for 90 consecutive days. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a similar bill in 2021, saying it wasn’t the right way to provide safety in hotels.

Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, proposed amendments that would have exempt certain categories of transient guests from the 90-day threshold. They included a parent caring for children, natural disaster victims and someone protected by a domestic violence order.

Border Patrol agents in one part of the southern border arrested three child sex offenders within two days, the agency announced this week — leading the sector’s union to ask ‘how many others got through?’

Customs and Border Protection says that on Jan. 30 agents stopped two illegal immigrants attempting to slip past them. One of them is a 40-year-old Salvadoran national with a prior conviction of unlawful sexual activity with a minor in Salt Lake City, Utah from 2008. He had most recently been deported last year, the agency said.

The next day, agents nabbed another Salvadoran national with prior convictions in Washington for rape and sexual assault of a child. He had been deported in 2018 after being sentenced to 18 months in jail.

The same day, agents found a Mexican national as part of a group of eight illegal immigrants attempting to evade Border Patrol. The man had been convicted in 2016 in Florida of lewd or lascivious acts with a child. He had been deported in 2021.

The agency noted that they all face a potential charge of re-entry after deportation, which carries up to a 20-year prison sentence.

The captures come amid ongoing concerns about the number of ‘gotaways’ — illegal immigrants who evade Border Patrol but are observed on alternative forms of surveillance — getting into the U.S. amid an overwhelming migrant crisis facing agents.

Sources told Fox News that there have been over 300,000 ‘gotaways’ this fiscal year, which began in October.

In fiscal year 2022, there were nearly 600,000 gotaways. There were 389,155 gotaways at the border in fiscal 2021, and fiscal 2023 is on track to easily outpace those numbers. Last month, agents told Fox News there have been more than 1.2 million gotaways during the Biden administration.

Tom Homan, a former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, told Fox News the number should ‘scare the hell out of every American’ and said there was a reason these migrants are not turning themselves in to Border Patrol to be processed and released into the U.S.

‘Why would they not take advantage of the program? Because they don’t want to be fingerprinted, and there’s a reason for that,’ he said.

Those concerns were echoed on Thursday by the Del Rio branch of the National Border Patrol Council.

‘Over 1 million people got away while agents were indoors processing over the past 2 years – how many others got through?’ the branch asked.

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

South Dakota lawmakers are advancing a number of bills that would curb Chinese influence in South Dakota’s farmland amid concerns among Republican leaders after a spy balloon was spotted and shot down last week.

Republican Rep. Will Mortenson proposed Thursday investigating partnerships between landowners and foreign entities. It comes a week after other lawmakers pushed forth other propositions tackling foreign influence, like banning contracts between state land and foreign countries, and establishing a committee to oversee future foreign purchases.

‘We don’t know what we don’t know, and we’re going to start finding out so we can make the next step,’ Mortenson said, after his bill passed a house committee vote with a unanimous vote.

The proposals stem from Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s recent history of curbing the state’s relationship with China. Last year, she banned state employees and contractors from accessing the video platform TikTok on state-owned devices, citing its ties to China. She also said late last year that the state held no direct investments in China after a review.

Noem’s emphasis on her perception of threats posed by China comes as she plans for a series of three policy speeches in Washington that seem to portend the rollout of a possible 2024 bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Next week, according to a person familiar with Noem’s plans, Noem will use one of the three speeches — a Feb. 15 address at the America First Policy Institute — to highlight South Dakota’s response to the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party. She’ll also discuss an executive order, which Noem signed last month, barring the state from engaging in business with some telecom companies owned or controlled by ‘evil foreign governments,’ including China, according to the executive order. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person is not yet authorized to speak about Noem’s plans publicly.

Alan Vester, Noem’s deputy general counsel, testified Thursday in support of the bill that would provide further insight into how much of South Dakota’s land is owned by foreign governments.

‘Gov. Kristi Noem believes strongly in protecting our state from maligned foreign governments from acquiring foreign agricultural land to the detriment of our state’s security, critical infrastructure or food security,’ Vester said.

Last week, Republican Sen. Erin Tobin proposed an act to create the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to regulate foreign purchases of agricultural land from out-of-country buyers. This oversight is intended to curb international influence in the state’s food supply and will be heard further by a Senate committee on agriculture and natural resources Feb. 14.

Tobin has been in discussion with states like North Dakota, where China’s government bought a tract of land near their air force base. She said that was an eye-opener to the rest of the country about the lack of knowledge about who’s taking ownership in state land and for what purpose, like spying. The committee would do a deep dive to investigate the motives behind any foreign purchase by looking at the buyer’s history.

‘You realize that China’s kind of coming in the front door and nobody’s putting any restrictions on anything,’ Tobin said. ‘When you really start paying attention and looking at what’s happening, you get even more concerned.’

Foreign entities and individuals control less than 3% of U.S. farmland, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of that, those with ties to China control less than 1%, or roughly 600 square miles.

EXCLUSIVE: Border Patrol apprehensions of Chinese nationals crossing into the U.S. illegally are currently up more than 800% when compared to the same time last year, Fox News has learned.

A senior Customs and Border Protection (CBP) source said that apprehensions of nationals from China are up 800% compared to the same period last fiscal year when including January — the numbers for which have not yet been released.

According to CBP statistics, there have been 1,862 Border Patrol encounters with Chinese nationals between October, when the fiscal year began, and the end of December. That’s compared to 229 in the same period in FY 2022, which would be a more than 700% increase.

In December, there were 931 Chinese nationals encountered, compared to 64 in December 2021.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) source told Fox News that as of Wednesday, the Rio Grande Valley sector had 15 Chinese nationals in custody, all of whom are adults ranging in ages from their 20s to their 50s.

Fox is told that they are typically processed for expedited removal unless they claim to have a credible fear of persecution if returned to the country — where the Chinese Communist Party holds power.

As a result, many are claiming that fear and are subsequently being released into the U.S. on their own recognizance and with a notice to appear for a court date for their immigration hearings.

The DHS is on the lookout for potential Chinese spies and other national security threats arriving at the southern border.

Last week, three Chinese nationals who each paid human smugglers $35,000 were apprehended in Texas. Smugglers typically charge Chinese nationals a higher rate. 

The U.S. southern border is in the throes of a historic migrant crisis, with more than 251,000 migrant encounters in December — although Fox is told that number dropped to around 150,000 in January, something for which the Biden administration is linking to recent border measures unveiled last month.

Nationals from at least 170 countries arrived at the border last year.

A university in Oregon has agreed to pay just over $1 million to a Jewish professor who the school fired after he reported several incidents of alleged sexual misconduct and antisemitism.

Linfield University, a private school in McMinnville, settled with English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner for $1,037,500 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit, according to local press reports and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The settlement, first reported by The Oregonian, is meant to cover the professor’s lost wages, emotional distress and attorney fees. While the settlement protects Linfield from further legal action by Pollack-Pelzner, it doesn’t prevent him from talking about the case.

Pollack-Pelzner, now a visiting scholar at Portland State University, said he’s pleased with the outcome.

‘Everyone should be able to work and study without fear of discrimination or harassment, and everyone should be able to report their safety concerns without fear of retaliation,’ said Pollack-Pelzner, according to The Oregonian. ‘I’m grateful for the many students, alumni and colleagues who joined me in demanding change and refused to be silenced when Linfield failed to uphold these essential principles.’

Pollack-Pelzner had accused the school’s president, Miles Davis, of making antisemitic remarks in front of him, including jokes about gas chambers and comments about the size of Jewish noses. The professor also repeatedly raised concerns about student and faculty allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate contact by the school’s board trustees.

Pollack-Pelzner was fired in April 2021, shortly after going public with these and other allegations. He learned about his termination when he tried sending an email from a personal address to his Linfield email and got an automated response telling him he was no longer employed.

After he was fired, Pollack-Pelzner sued the school for $4 million, claiming he was fired due to retaliation. Pollack-Pelzner was a tenured professor and began teaching at Linfield in 2010. He held an endowed chair in Shakespeare studies until his abrupt termination in late April 2021.

A subsequent investigation by the American Association of University Professors found that Linfield violated several policies in its treatment of Pollack-Pelzner. Among the alleged violations were dismissing Pollack-Pelzner without due process, violating his academic freedom and refusing to give him at least one year of severance pay or notice of termination.

‘Ultimately, we hope his case sends a clear message that sexual harassment must not be tolerated on any campus and that institutions that seek to silence whistleblowers will be held to account,’ said attorney Dana Sullivan, who represented Pollack-Pelzner.

Linfield didn’t admit any wrongdoing and disputed Pollack-Pelzner’s claims but agreed to the settlement nonetheless at the recommendation of the university’s insurers.

‘Defending against litigation, even when confident in the legal outcome, diverts time and energy from the mission of the institution,’ Linfield Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications Scott Nelson said in a statement. ‘More importantly, this agreement allows Linfield to focus on building and expanding upon its rich educational heritage and creating a welcoming community for all.’

Several people affiliated with Linfield left the school in solidarity with Pollack-Pelzner in the wake of his firing, including the trustee who had endowed the professor’s chair in the English department.

Davis remains Linfield’s president despite calls from the Anti-Defamation League, the Oregon Board of Rabbis and other groups for his resignation.

Last year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education ranked Linfield as one of its ’10 worst colleges for free speech.’

One Senate Democrat is not happy about the Biden administration’s decision to delay shooting down the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the U.S. for days last week before finally being taken down over the Atlantic Ocean.

During a Thursday Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, a stern Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., grilled a number of President Biden’s defense officials over the balloon, telling them the administration ‘owes America answers,’ and asking why it was allowed continue on its flight path.

‘Do we have a plan for the next thing that happens and how we are going to deal with it? Because, quite frankly, I’ll just tell you I don’t want a d–n balloon going across the United States when we potentially could have taken it down over the Aleutian Islands … or in some of the areas in Montana,’ Tester said.

‘I understand public health, I understand doing damage, I understand that could have been a nightmare, but the truth is I’ve got a problem with a Chinese balloon flying over my state, much less the rest of the country,’ he added.

One of the officials, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton, didn’t directly answer the question, and instead said the administration ‘sent a very clear message’ by shooting down the balloon in sovereign U.S. waters.

Tester asked if there was a plan on how to handle another Chinese balloon should one enter U.S. airspace in the future, noting that no one knew for sure what sort of intelligence the Chinese were trying to collect. 

‘That scares the hell out of me,’ he said.

Dalton responded that as U.S. intelligence learns more about the balloons and their capabilities, they would develop a better understanding how to handle such a scenario going forward.

This is the first instance in which Tester has spoken out on the Biden administration’s decision to delay shooting down the balloon, which it said would have been a potential danger to people or infrastructure on the ground.

He has, however, previously taken a sharp tone over the situation as a whole, declaring it an ‘unacceptable’ provocation from China that Americans deserved answers on from the Biden administration.

The Pentagon first announced it had detected the balloon on Thursday when it was flying over the state of Montana. It was allowed to continue flying until being taken down six nautical miles off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.

Biden told reporters after the balloon shot down that he ordered it to be taken out on Wednesday, but that defense officials ‘decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water outside within a 12-mile limit.’ 

Earlier this week, senior military and national security official confirmed that the downed balloon was tied to a major surveillance program run by China’s military. The program relies on dated balloon technology along with modern signal surveillance techniques. The balloons travel through the upper atmosphere, hovering between 60,000 and 80,000 feet above Earth, above where commercial jets travel.  

Expect Fox News to confirm more information in the coming days.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.